The total assets of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the nation's central bank, have balloonedup 119 percent to 28 trillion yuan ($4.5 trillion) in the past five years, making it the world's biggest central bank in terms of total assets, China Business News reported, citing a report from the Standard Chartered Bank.

The PBOC has outpaced the European Central Bank (ECB) whose total assets reached $3.5 trillion at the end of 2011. The Federal Reserve came in as the third largest with total assets of $3 trillion.

The Standard Chartered report said China's central bank, instead of ECB or the Federal Reserve, is now the major supplier of the global liquidity. The PBOC saw an increase of 146 percent in its broad money supply (M2) during the last five years. In 2011 alone, China's M2 supply accounted for 52 percent of the world's total.

The report attributed China's M2 boom to the bank's credit expansion, government's incentive measures which relying on credit and created demand to combat economic slowdown and the PBOC's purchase of foreign exchanges to stabilize renminbi rate.

Yet, that sharp increase of M2 would create inflationary pressure, so the growth rate may slow down in the future, the Standard Chartered report added, predicting the nation's M2 growth rate to stand between 13 to 14 percent this year, lower than the rates in previous years.

沪江英语快讯：中国央行世界第一！根据渣打银行发布的报告，中国央行已经成为世界上最大的央行，其总资产在2011年年末达到了28万亿人民币（约合4.5万亿美元），而欧洲央行和美联储的资产分别只有3.5万亿美元和3万亿美元。

沪江科普：什么是M2？

M0、M1、M2、M3都是用来反映货币供应量的重要指标。国际上大致的划分是：

货币（M0）=流通中的现金，即流通于银行体系之外的现金

狭义货币（M1）=（M0）流通中的现金+支票存款（以及转账信用卡存款） 

广义货币（M2）=M1+储蓄存款（包括活期和定期储蓄存款）+政府债券

另外还有M3=M2+其他短期流动资产（如国库券、银行承兑汇票、商业票据等）

M1反映着经济中的现实购买力；M2不仅反映现实的购买力，还反映潜在的购买力。若M1增速较快，则消费和终端市场活跃；若M2增速较快，则投资和中间市场活跃。中央银行和各商业银行可以据此判定货币政策。M2过高而M1过低，表明投资过热、需求不旺，有危机风险；M1过高M2过低，表明需求强劲、投资不足，有涨价风险。